Triblade's Return
by draco453
Summary: Seven years ago, Draco Equiste ended the Age of the Demon with his army. Now he returns to the digital world to decide its fate once again.
1. Going Again

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon**_

**Going Again**

Draco walked through the crowded city's streets, a bouquet of roses clasped tightly in his hands. He listened to the rumors fly from one ear to another.

"Those monsters appeared again." "They come with some glowing flag." "I heard those kids appeared and fought them off."

The teen maneuvered around the passersby and reached an empty park, a place that many people would take one glance at and ignore. Draco trampled over the crunchy weeds as he meandered around the desolate playground. He walked over a see-saw which had its paint worn and chipped away. Draco planted the flowers in front of an empty sandbox with four engravings: tiger, dragon, turtle, and bird.

Lost in nostalgia he sat the seat of a rusty swing, it moaning creak echoing through the void. This was where his adventure had started and ended seven years ago to this day. Images of his old friends floated through his mind. Caliber, Tiny, and Blaze; his trusted partners from the war game.

A second rhythmic screech interrupted his thoughts. He looked to his left and saw a girl swinging beside him. Her neat brown ponytail swayed with the rusted chains. Her neat silver and white clothing clearly contrasted his wrinkled red and black garments. The girl's most eye-catching feature swayed with each motion.

"Where do you think you're staring?" She growled when she noticed the teen's staring. Draco gave no reply as he continued to look. The girl stopped swinging and so did the rectangular device that she had hanging from her hip. It was the same color as her clothes, and would have easily been mistaken by others as a cellphone. He knew better, it was a digivice.

"Hey, answer me!" The girl demanded. The teen predicted that things wouldn't be good for him if he stayed there. Digivices only lead to digimon.

Draco emerged from his suspended seat and advanced out of the park. Behind him, he could hear the girl chatting with two people who occupied the swings after he had left. A crashing sound appeared behind him as the barrier between dimensions broke apart like a stone going through a window. Draco took a glimpse behind him. Apparently the stone in this case was a giant black dragon with four decayed black wings, four glowing red eyes, six red claws ready to slice its enemies to bloody shards.

_Devidramon. _A part of him instinctively identified. He noticed the other three had called creatures of their own. They resembled a pink-tinged rabbit with four purple accented ears, a bipedal lion with flames emitted from its headpiece and tail, and a blue reptile with a v-mark on its forehead. _Lunamon, Coronamon, Veemon_. He identified all of them in an instant. His memories of the creatures were unpleasant, making him uncomfortable near this many digimon.

The Devidramon looked at its opponents with its four eyes and seemed cautious, as if it had been in a similar situation. A stray eye caught movement behind it and it causally turned its head to face Draco. Within moments a memory registered through the creature, one which fueled it with a sense of hate, and left a desire for vengeance.

**_Crimson Claw!_**

It roared as it lunged at him with a glowing red hand. It crashed on to the ground sending dirt and dust flying past its shoulders. Draco was able to avoid the attack. He could smell the dust in the air. He could hear the sounds of people running in terror, realizing that there was a giant dragon attacking teenagers. He could also hear the girl release a shocked squeal.

**_Digimodify!_** She yelled. **_Evolution Activate!_**

_**Moon Night Kick!** _

The dragon released a cry of pain as a something had crashed into its head. The dust had finally landed, and Draco could see what was happening. A tall pink rabbit, who he identified as _Lekismon_, was currently avoiding the Devidramon's crimson claw attacks while punching it with its black gloves embroidered with a crescent moon symbol. The other two people, who Draco saw was a guy and another girl. They slashed black cards through their digivices and their digimon were cloaked in a yellow light. A large blue dragon with white wings and a winged orange lion with a yellow mane flew towards the Devidramon.

**_Hearty Shatter! Fira Claw!_ **

The Exveemon smashed its spiked fist into the black dragon, and then followed up by the Firamon's flaming claw smashing into its head.

The joint attacks sent the draconic digimon flying back to the base of the dimensional fissure. Its body began to break apart into data, dissolving feet first. It glared at the three digimon and their partners, who were holding another black card next to their digivices, ready to slash them across. Then the growled at Draco, appalled at the teen's calm demeanor.

"I…" It growled, struggling to speak in face of its demise. "I... will NOT DIE IN VAIN!" With the last of its fading strength, it grabbed the fissure's edge and tore it apart. The break broke apart the ground of the deserted park. The fading Devidramon, the digimon and their partners all fell into the abyss. Draco was almost out of the park when the ground broke beneath him. His gloved hand grasped weakly on the sidewalk. He looked down and saw familiar streams of digital code flowing beneath his feet. The teen took a last look at the empty sky above him, and felt a melancholic feeling of déjà vu.

Draco released his hold on the real world and fell through the looking-glass, wondering if he'd return to reality again. The fissure closed once he let go, sealing away the four trapped humans from the world.

Above, the park returned to normal. Only the sound of the squeaking swings could be heard. The all the roses fell to the ground, all seven motionless on the dead grass.


	2. A Different World

_**Disclaimer: I own a pencil, bottle cap, and a sandwich. I don't own Digimon.**_

**A Different World**

To think of this place as an evil lair would be quite appropriate. A man in a sparking purple cloak mused. It held all the standards: giant screens to quietly see his plans, a standard size dungeon, even a well-armed legion ready to run off into battle.

A small alert signaled that something had changed. He turned and looked through his purple skull mask and saw that a screen had zoomed up on three objects falling through the sky. "Humans?" He mused. Humans, weak yet became infinitely stronger when traveling in a tight pack. "They'll be a minor opponent to worry about after all; I still have the Utopian and Holy Armies to watch out for."

He turned around and placed three white pawns on a large chess board. There were many other pieces on it, including three kings: purple, silver, and gold. The purple one had a skull mask identical to the one the man was wearing, the silver had many black tentacles attached to it, and the golden one was in the shape of a winged dragon.

"Darn Devidramon. You just made my life a bit harder." The masked man grumbled. Those portals to the real world kept sucking up his expensive soldiers.

Another alert lit up the screen. What now? The man thought. He turned and saw a fourth human falling through the dimensional fissure. It zoomed up close enough for him to identify the human's face. A spark of recognition raced through the man's mind, and an emotion that he didn't feel since the Age of the King reappeared.

Joy. Joy at the thought of ripping this child apart. "So you've returned Equiste! I'll pay you back for your actions during the Demon's War."

The man eagerly made a new piece, another King, and then placed the item on the board. It was a regular king, but on its stomach was a symbol. A symbol of three intersecting blades.

"I think I'll send them a little gift."

* * *

Draco was in a throne room. The room sparkled with white silver garnished around three large thrones. He glanced around and saw three digimon hovering over their seat. A male angel in blue armor debated with a female angel in pale green armor. A giant rabbit smiled at him softly.

_Seraphimon. Ophanimon. Cherubimon. _ His memory identified. These three are the rulers of the Age of the Celestials.

"Why am I here again?" Draco asked. "Didn't I help enough seven years ago? I thought you guys were going to rule for three more years."

"That's exactly what we would have done, if the pattern remained the same." Seraphimon replied.

"Since you brought down the Age of the Demons early, the time span of each era changed so." Ophanimon added.

"We gave our blessings to children who we feel will send the world to a better picture. They were going to go be brought here at some point, but the incident with the Devidramon sent them in too early. They need to get stronger or else they won't live long enough to change anything." Cherubimon summed up.

"So why am I here again?" Draco asked. "This doesn't have anything to do with me anymore."

"I'm afraid it does, Child of the Sovereigns." Ophanimon said. "You being brought back must mean that your role is not over yet."

"What do you mean not over? Why are you doing this to me?"

"Of it is not our choice to bring you back. The rulers only interoperate the World's will, and allowing you to return could either be a blessing or a problem. You see, how it's interpreted is usually the problem." Seraphimon explained. "Your reappearance is still debatable. The Triblade Army is the last contender for the new age, try not to be problematic. Oh, well looks like our time is ending soon, so from all of us here. We wish you luck, Child of the Sovereigns."

Draco's vision shattered, replaced with a clear view of digital sky. He then resumed falling.

* * *

Selene woke up with a start. She sat on a long grassy strip land. In front of her laid a vast dense forest. She turned and saw a long desert behind her. Above, streams of digital codes raced through the skies.

"Luna." She said to the device on her hip. "Is this place where I think it is?"

"No doubt about it." The digivice beeped. "This is the Digital World."

"That's definitely not good. Where do you think Lavi and Damian went?"

"Right here." A weak voice groaned beneath her. Selene looked down and got off of her friends.

A tall dark-haired guy wearing a blue jacket and a tanned blond in green stood up from where she was sitting.

"Sorry guys." She said. Selene noticed another person on the ground. "Hey, who's he."

"I think that was the guy from the park." Lavi said. "You know the one who kept looking at your digivice."

"Oh that's what he was staring at." Damian said. "I thought he was starting at your-" He got in the back of his head by both girls.

"Anyways. We better wake him up. Without a digimon he'll be in trouble." Selene said.

"I think we'd be in trouble as well." A voice said from Damian's digivice. "We can only reach Champion. If an Ultimate or Mega leveled digimon comes then I don't think we can even last."

"You can always find the bright side, can't you Vee." His partner said.

"I try my best." The voice chipped.

"Hey the Devidramon fell around here too right?" Lavi asked.

"I grabbed the card as we fell." Damian said as he held up a black card. One side was a black design and had a yellow D written on it. The other side had a picture of the Devidramon, its name, level, and a special attack.

Selene remembered the guy on the ground. "Who is he anyways?"

"I think he was a guy at our school. Draco …Something." Lavi replied. "You know, that weird kid that gets freaked out when he gets near a computer."

The boy groaned. "Darn fairies!" He yelled as he woke up. Lavi smiled as her point was made. Draco looked around and then gazed at the data streaming in the sky. "The Digital World again, huh."

"What do you mean again?" Selene asked. Draco turned and noticed the three watching him.

He opened his mouth and a roar echoed through the air. The other three stared at him with confused looks. A fireball struck the forest beside them. While they stared at the flames, Draco turned towards the desert and saw something storming towards them.

A red dinosaur with green spine quickly headed towards them. Its mouth was smoking from the earlier blast. "_Tyrannomon!_" He yelled. "Head into the forest!"

"What are you talking about?" Selene said. "You go and hide. We can face it."

Draco glared at their digivices and raced to the forest without another word.

Selene turned her attention to the oncoming digimon. Exveemon and Firamon were already trading blows with it.

"Come out, Luna!" A green light emerged from her rectangular gadget. Lunamon appeared and charged at the dino. Selene took out another black card. This one had a picture of a silver star with an arrow pointing to a golden star. She slashed the card through a crevice in the side of her digivice.

_Digimodify! Evolution Activate!_

Luna basked in a golden light and changed into her champion form and joined the fight. The three digimon wailed on the Tyrannomon, except that it was barely doing any damage. The red dino chuckled sadistically and opened its mouth for another attack.

_**BLAZE BLA-**_

**_Moon Night Bomb!_**

Lekismon threw a water bubble into the dino's igniting attack. It roared in pain. The secondary effect caused it to become slightly drowsy. The other two followed up with their own attacks.

**_Vee-Laser!_**

**_Fira Bomb!_**

A shining yellow beam erupted from the markings on Exveemon's chest and a fireball erupted out from Firamon's forehead. The two shots connected, containing the red digimon in a cloud of sand and dust. The three champion digimon looked proud of their work.

_**WILD BUSTER!**_

Tyrannomon burst out of the cloud and rammed into Firamon. The blow knocked out the winged lion and forced him back into Coronamon. "Kora!" Lavi exclaimed while running towards her partner.

"Was that your best?" Tyrannomon taunted.

_**SLASH CLAW!**_

The red dinosaur smashed its hand into Exveemon, who collapsed onto his knees in trying to hold back the attack. "Exveemon!" Damian exclaimed. He pulled out a card from his side.

**_Digimodify! Icedevimon Activate!_**

A white horned helmet appeared on Exveemon's head.

**_Tundra Freeze!_**

A purple laser appeared from Exveemon's eyes and connected with Tyrannomon's hand, incasing it with an icy cast. The dinosaur raised its hand and smashed it on Exveemon's head. Veemon fell down to the ground.

"Is that the best you could do? So pathetic. I'll save you all the trouble and delete you now." With that said Tyrannomon opened its mouth and aimed its next attack right at the humans. Luna tried her best to divert the dino's attention, but she was hit by the red digimon's tail. "Good bye!"

**_Pepper Breath!_**

A fireball streaked through the air a smashed into Tyrannomon's right eye. A yellow figure streaked out of the burning forest and leaped towards the flinching champion.

_**Sharp Claw!**_

The new digimon impaled its claws into the digimon's other eye. "Who are you?" The blinded digimon growled. The attacking digimon landed on the grassy streak, and casually tightened the red leather belts on his arms.

"So wish to know my name?" The reptilian digimon replied. "Then I guess I'll tell you about smoldering blade. I am Captain Blaze of the Triblade Army!"


	3. Meetings

DISCLAIMER! Still don't own digimon.

Draco tore past the unburned areas of the forest until he couldn't run anymore. The fire had started to subside and the sounds of the fight on the strip of plains began to resonate through the forest. He swore. The last time he felt this useless was when he first arrived in this world seven years ago. Before he met them.

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out the red device that never left his side for past few years. The screen still showed empty static, proof that it downgraded from a powerful weapon to sentimental scrap metal.

His hands limped to his side and heard the battle continue. Things didn't sound good for those other people and their partners.

What can I do? Draco thought.

Instantly his digivice beeped. The first time it worked in years. He eagerly looked to it. Its green screen flooded with light. From it, a projection of a purple clad man appeared. A skull mask covered the holographic man's face. Draco was unsure who, or what the man was doing in his digivice.

"Hello, General of Triblade. I am Mr. Grimm the current leader of the Krono Army. Because of that, I am your three rivals for this war."

Draco groaned. "Another war? So the Age of Celestials really is ending this early?"

"Why of course! It's all thanks to you. Breaking down the Age of Demons must have impressed the Digital World enough to bring you back for another round. It even split down the away your resources to even the fight for the rest of us. It believes that we really need the handicap against you… or perhaps too scared of you at full power."

"Then why are you telling me this instead of just attacking and leaving me in the dark?"

"Who says I can't do both?" The purple man chuckled fiendishly. "Devimon and some of the others that scouted the human world were part of my Champion Division."

"The digimon that those guys took down." Draco muttered.

The man didn't seem to hear. "I also recovered a couple of your items. You and Triblade were powerful back in the day thanks to them. I wonder if you can survive without them."

"So you have them." Draco scowled. A large explosion followed by a scream.

"Yes. Two of the five are in my possession. I want to see the full power that broke the Age of Demons. I'm sure you can handle the Tyrannomon I sent you. If you can defeat him in your current state, then you will get your artifact back from him. I will make a deal for the other once you've proven your worth."

"So I have to defeat him alone?" Draco asked with annoyance.

The purple cloaked man chuckled. "Of course not. That would be too dull. And I believe you are forgetting your human allies that are still fighting right now."

Another explosion erupted back at the strip. Smoke billowed into the digital sky.

"Then again, I have a better idea." He snapped his fingers. A node flashed on the crimson digivice.

RELOAD: AGUMON

A bright green light flashed from the digivice. Once it subsided, an orange reptile with red arm braces appeared on the forest floor. Draco gave a small gasp.

"Blaze?" He asked, shocked at the sight of his old friend.

The Agumon's eyes stared up with shocked recognition. "Draco…" He said slowly. "You are the _BIGGEST_ JERK EVER!"

_**CLAW UPPERCUT!**_

The orange lizard struck Draco's chin and sent him flying into a tree. "How... what... sigh, I guess I deserved that." He groaned.

"Well I hope this reunion can turn out well." The purple clad man said as the hologram flickered away.

"What else did you expect?" The digimon roared. "You left us! Left us behind! Left us alone! You left _ME_ alone!"

Draco jumped off of the tree and landed on Blaze's head. "I was just a kid! I couldn't stay! I did my job and saved the Digital World. Didn't we all agree to that? Everything, even Triblade, has to end eventually!"

Before the digimon could retaliate another explosion rocked through the forest. Large debris flew through the air. "Watch out!" Blaze exclaimed.

_**PEPPER BREATH!**_

The digimon launched a small fireball at a flaming tree trunk, quickly incinerating it. "Just like old times?" Draco questioned.

Blaze glared at him, sharp teeth glinting in the sun. Finally the reptilian features relaxed and faded into a grin. "Just like old times." He chuckled. The digimon looked towards the source of the smoke. "So another enemy is there."

"Yup."

"More battles after this one?"

"I guess around three armies worth."

"Then what are we waiting for!" The digimon exclaimed happily. "Give me some power and point the way, _GENERAL_."

Draco chuckled sheepishly remembering the old nickname. "Um, I guess the digivice restarted all of its programs when reentering the digital world."

Blaze's eye twitched before what Draco said sunk in. "Heh." He chuckled. "I guess it really is like old times then." It commented in a grin whisper. "He… He… HAH HA HA! Perfect! What are your orders, General?"

Draco grinned, remembering the last time he heard the digimon say that phrase. "Right. Take it down. No mercy."

"Loud and Clear!" Blaze roared and charged straight towards the battle. Draco was about to follow but something caught his eye. He grabbed the object and quickly rushed after the digimon. The memories of his old life returned to him as a grin, but then he frowned. Along with the good times, the bad times had quickly followed. He hoped this time, there would be a better ending.


	4. Power

_**Another disclaimer, another time saying I don't own Digimon.**_

_**POWER**_

Selene's eye twitched. Luna's attacks barely phased the digimon, but the rookie had just arrived and already blinded it.

_**PEPPER BREATH!**_

The orange digimon let loose another fireball, only for it to get swatted away by Tyrannomon's long arms. One eye was wounded and bleeding, but the one that had been hit by the other Pepper Breath was perfectly fine.

Tyrannomon touched its bleeding eye and growled at the rookie. "Triblade, don't be ridiculous. A weak digimon like you can't possibly be part of that army." A red band on its arms began to glow with a bright crimson light. "A weak digimon like you couldn't possibly know the power that this relic of Triblade contains." It flashed a dangerous smile. "But I guess it wouldn't hurt to show you."

By now, a glowing red aura completely covered the champion digimon. Tyrannomon clenched its clawed hand and struck at the rookie. The Agumon managed to evade the attack in time, but the impact blasted debris from the grassy land.

Its working eye scanned the area for the rookie but its gaze fell on the human. The gaze was petrifying.

_**BLAZE BLAST!**_

A large fireball streaked towards her. Selene could see Luna racing towards her, and even though she reached for her remaining cards, she knew that she couldn't use any of them in time.

_**SPITFIRE BLAST!**_

A smaller fireball rocketed into the larger one and exploded, causing both to erupt into sparking embers. Tyrannomon turned to where the attack originated. "Found you." It growled.

As the champion digimon rushed toward the slippery rookie, Luna came and hugged Selene, quickly letting go right after. "What is wrong with that guy?"

Selene looked at the two digimon fighting in the desert area. Tyrannomon sending up streams of sand with each punch, while the Agumon managed to avoid each critical blow.

"Which one do you mean?" She asked.

"That Tyrannomon," The Lekismon replied, "It's stronger than the average champion. Those punches are only punches, not special attacks, and they are already that powerful. Not to mention that having a glowing aura isn't normal, not even in the digital world."

"Sel, I agree with Luna." Lavi had reappeared from her hiding place. Damian was right behind her. "Nothing we faced so far could knock out Kora in one shot."

"What should we do guys?" Damian asked worriedly. His hands fumbled with his digivice, waiting for his partner to recover. "Blaze doesn't look like he can hold out longer."

"Wait, who?" Lavi asked.

"Oh come on, Lavi. That rookie saved our skins. How did you forget already? He yelled it out five minutes ago."

"Well _excuse_ me! Sel was almost barbequed two minutes ago, so I have more important things on my mind!" Lavi growled.

Selene looked at the fight and saw that Damian was right. The Agumon seemed to be getting slower, each miss was getting closer and closer. "Alright. Does anyone have a plan?" She asked.

"I have one." Draco appeared from the forest suddenly, surprising the trio. Selene noticed that he held some black sphere under his arm and holding a … digivice in the other?

She looked at the tiring Agumon, then back to the digivice. Did this guy bond with a digimon in that amount of time?

"May I see your cards?" He asked them. Damian quickly handed over his cards, while Lavi asked Selene whether they could trust him.

Selene sighed and quickly handed hers over as well, with Lavi doing the same after. He fanned out the deck. From the cards, Draco pulled out two and handed them back separately from the rest of the cards.

"Crabmon and Gesomon?" Selene asked when she looked at them. She remembered that they were easily defeated when they caused havoc at the beach in the real world.

"These guys were pushovers!" Lavi exclaimed. "How can they help out against _that_?" She gestured to Tyrannomon.

_**SLASH CLAW!**_

The red champion's quick attack crashed on to the ground as Blaze got grazed by jumping out-of-the-way. A fissure formed from the force of the attack and the tiny rookie spiraled back into the grass.

"Use the Gesomon card's Coral Crusher to bind those hands and then have another digimon use Crabmon's attack to force open its mouth." Draco ordered.

"And then what?" Damian asked, holding up his digivice to let Vee fight the digimon a second time.

Draco grinned and held up the black sphere. "Watch as I do a slam dunk."

* * *

Blaze struggled to stand up, just getting grazed by that attack nearly got him erased. A shadow covered him as the towering champion stood over in triumph.

"Pathetic pest." It growled and raised a glowing hand. "I've had enough of your antics."

_**SLASH CL-**_

_**CORAL CRUSHER!**_

Two white tentacles flew and bound the Tyrannomon's long arms. "What is this?" It growled.

Blaze saw the Lekismon had extended the tentacles from its boxing gloves. He saw the General running towards him along with another human and a Veemon.

"Now!" He heard the General order.

_**Digimodify! Crabmon Activate!**_

As the Veemon up leaped towards the tall champion, one of its hands turned into a razor crab claw.

_**SCISSORS ATTACK!**_

The Veemon jammed its pincer into the Tyrannomon's mouth, and then used the claw to force the powerful jaws open.

With an effort, the General threw something at him. "Catch!" He said. Blaze caught a black sphere. A digital coconut? He wondered. Why would he give me this? The last time I saw one was when Caliber almost… ah.

The rookie quickly stood up and gripped the coconut, then quickly used the last of his strength to jump into the Tyrannomon's mouth. This is disgusting! His mind screamed. Blaze glanced at the claw and saw that it couldn't hold the mouth open longer.

He grimaced at the feel of the Tyrannomon's tongue and grasped the coconut in his hand and then lodged it into the champion's mouth.

Blaze tackled the Veemon out of the mouth as both the claw and the tentacles dissolved away. He looked back and saw the large digimon clutching its throat in pain. The red aura disappeared as the dinosaur succumbed down to its knees.

Tyrannomon gave Blaze one last glare of hatred before dissolving into bits of data. He watched as some of the data vanished, returning to the Digital World to be reborn. The excess data collected together and reformed into a digimon card. Uninterested Blaze quickly ran to the Red Ring that had fallen next to the card.

He picked it up, reading the digicode that said an old acquaintance's motto. _Never Stop the Attack. Power Shall Fuel the Flames of our Victory_. Blaze snatched up the card as well and ran back to present both items to his General.

* * *

Above the scene of the battle, a digimon that looked like a pointy flying marshmallow had observed the entire incident. Having done its job, the Puttimon flew up into one of the code streams. It vanished into the stream and reappeared in front of a large tent. It went inside and reported what it had seen to a larger digimon.

This digimon sat on a large chair adorned with a large golden cross. The light from some vents in the tent illuminated the digimon and chair in a blinding light. "Triblade you say." It murmured. "Alrighty then. Go back and find out their next moves, and if they happen to find _that_, then you know what to do."

The Puttimon nodded and gave a salute with one of its golden wings. It hopped outside of the tent and flew away.

The remaining digimon stood up and complicated the new news. "A Tyrannomon… Grimm. Willing to sacrifice a precious piece of the game on a newcomer? How silly." The digimon held up its golden armored arm into the light. With a clawed blue hand, it fervently rubbed a white ring worn above the armor. It glowed as a white aura appeared in the hand. The digimon grasped it, and it faded away. "This power, no, ALL power, shall be mine, and once I obtain it no army will stand between me and the Digital World!"


	5. Oasis

_**DISCLAIMER OF DOOOOOM: I still don't own digimon.**_

**Oasis**

"Alright then." Lavi growled. "Start explaining, NOW!" After Blaze returned the ring and card to Draco, Lavi grabbed him by the collar and pinned him to the ground. "Why do you have a digivice?"

"Lavi, maybe you should relax a bit." Damian suggested.

"Not until I get some answers." She growled. "Sel, you agree with me, right?"

Selene sighed. "It would be nice to have some answers." She agreed.

"Great, now start talking." Draco muttered something softly. "What?" Lavi yelled.

"Please get off my chest." He said. Lavi looked over to Selene, who nodded. She reluctantly got off and brushed off her orange clothing.

Draco stood up and took a couple of breaths. He looked at the trio, who stared back expectantly. "Look, there's not much I can say on this. I'll tell the basics, seven years ago I was brought to the Digital World. It was a different place, and under a very different leadership. This world tends to change its rulers often. Right now we are in the middle of another conflict, making this a very dangerous place to be in."

An echoing roar bounced at them from far away, as if to prove his point.

"Then I suggest we see our benefactors." Selene said.

"Benefactors?" Draco asked.

Damian tried to explain. "They were the people who gave us our digivices, basically -"

"Quiet!" Lavi said, elbowing the blue clad boy in the ribs.

"Was one of these benefactors a tall blue angel?" Draco asked. Selene's eyes widened, while the other two stopped bickering. "I thought so." He pulled out his digivice and fiddled around with it. Words and data crawled across the green screen.

CURRENT FUNCTIONS:

EVOLUTION:

CHAMPION – ACTIVE

ULTIMATE – OFFLINE  
MEGA – OFFLINE

XROSS – OFFLINE

EXCEED – OFFLINE

…

Draco pressed a couple more buttons, and then a large holographic map appeared. "Gotcha. Alright, now we are here." He pointed to a flashing red dot on the map. The place where they would be is around here." He traced a line from the dot to an area in the middle of the map.

"So we'll go straight there." Damian stated. Draco shook his head and pointed out towards the desert.

"Going directly there will be dangerous." He traced another route, one zigzagging across the desert. These are towns where we could find supplies along the way."

"Wait a minute." Lavi commanded.

"What now." Draco sighed.

"Who said you were going to go with us? You still haven't told us what happened with that Tyrannomon."

Draco blinked. "Digimon need to breath. Blaze blocked off its throat with a coconut, making it choke and die."

"Aren't digimon data?" Damian asked, wondering how a plan like that could work.

"Yes. They are." Draco replied. "They are programs that are alive, and living things, even digimon, need to breath, eat, and sleep to live."

"What is in the first town?" Selene asked, pointing to the first of three stops in the route.

Draco fidgeted. "I do not know. Everything's changed since I was last here, I can only do this much."

"It's true." Blaze spoke up. "Nothing even resembles the last time you were here General. The Celestials returned to Digital World into a better place than… that." The digimon's tone grew darker as he remembered the state of the world.

"Alright then." Selene said. "We'll go and meet these people and hopefully get some more answers. Luna, if you please." The Leskimon picked Selene and Lavi up, putting them on her back.

"Wait! What about me?" Damian asked his friends. Selene shrugged, Lavi blew a raspberry. The rabbit digimon hopped away into the desert. After watching them disappear past the sand, Damian turned and saw Draco still fiddling with his digivice.

"Hey." Damian said. "Um, I guess it's a bit late for introductions, but I'm Damian-"

"I know who you guys are." Draco said, cutting him off.

"R-really?"

"Who wouldn't with your fights constantly going on the news."

"Oh, nice." Awkward silence resumed. He noticed that the red digivice was missing a long hole in the side like his did. "Hey, your digivice doesn't have a card slider." He mentioned.

Draco nodded and held his digivice up. It looked like his, other than the hole, Draco's had a gold 'X' over the screen. "What is-"

"Are we going to go or what?" Vee growled from his digivice. Damian quickly reloaded his partner.

"Sorry Vee, forgot." He apologized to the blue digimon. "Can you digivolve?"

The digimon nodded. "Great!" He slid a card across his digivice.

_**Digimodify! Evolution Activate!**_

After a flash of light, his partner became the large winged wyvern. Damian climbed on his shoulder and motioned for Draco to ride along. The other boy reluctantly climbed on to the other shoulder.

"Aren't you going to put Blaze in your digivice?" Damian asked.

The Agumon climbed up the dragon's back and sat on his head, yelling, "Fly! Fly! Bwa ha ha."

"I'll take that as a no." Damian said. "Alrighty Vee, ready to go."

"Just so you know, I am not going to do this again right." The digimon said, motioning to the fidgeting Blaze. Damian nodded and the dragon began to fly.

Draco remained silent even after Vee took off. "So…" Damian started, disliking the silence. "The girls are a few minutes ahead of us right?"

The other boy shrugged, and the silence continued. Damian contemplated saying something, but stopped. The silence was maddening to him, but Draco seemed fine. Damian sighed.

"Does this… get any easier?" He forced out. Draco raised an eyebrow. "I mean you've faced this before. The anxiety and the worries that your partner might lose and get… get…"

He stopped talking and instead gripped tighter on Vee. Draco remained silent. Blaze stopped moving and sat still. "No." The other boy replied. "The worries never fade."

"Oh." Damian sighed.

"You can, however, get stronger. With strong allies and friends, the worries you get are insignificant compared to your trust that they are strong enough to beat anything."

"Really?" Damian looked at the other boy, amazed at the thought.

"Really." Draco replied, trying to give him a grin.

"Um, can you not do that, it looks like you're going to slash someone to bits."

"Ha. Ha."

Vee stopped flying suddenly and hovered in the air. "We're here." He growled softly. Damian gasped. The digimon town surrounded an oasis, with the houses made of dried grasses that grew along the water bank. The town looked amazing, and it would have looked even more amazing if a couple of the buildings weren't on fire.

"Hey Vee, what do you think the chances are that Lavi isn't involved in this." Damian asked.

Another hut burst into flames, and the four saw a flaming lion stepping out of the blazes. "Pretty slim, partner." Vee replied.

The Firamon stumbled next to the Lekismon. Both of them seemed tired out from either the run or the earlier fight. In front of them a black clad dragon landed next to an angelic digimon in gold and red. "A Sealsdramon and a D'arcmon." Draco instantly identified.

"What do you think they are doing here?" Blaze asked. When he asked the Sealsdramon charged at the two digimon with its knives, with the D'arcmon doing the same with its twin blades.

"What should we do?" Damian asked worriedly. Before he finished his sentence, Blaze dived from Vee's head, with Draco doing the same right after.

"Start the Program!" Draco yelled. His digivice shot a red laser at Blaze, enveloping the digimon in a blinding light. "_**EVOLVE : AGUMON!**_"

_**Earlier:**_

"I don't trust that guy." Lavi ranted. Luna only leaped out into the desert only moments earlier.

"Why?" Selene sighed, knowing who her friend was talking about. "He was an interesting person."

"Something is weird about him. There's something he didn't mention."

"I'm sure he does have some skeletons locked away somewhere, but everyone does. Besides I think he's a bit like you."

"What?" Lavi growled.

"To be honest, Damian and I didn't trust you when you appeared with Kora that night. After all your plan to take down that digimon was to burn the building it was in along with it."

"It was an abandoned building, no one would have missed it." Lavi protested.

"That's beside the point. We eventually warmed up to you didn't we? We'll just give this guy some time to see how everyone feels alright?"

"Fine Sel, whatever." Lavi grumbled.

After traveling for a bit longer, Luna made reached the town. Cactus-like digimon walked over the town, along with green digimon with large flowers on their heads. They climbed off the rabbit digimon and walked into town. "At least he has right directions." Lavi mentioned.

"I think we should stop by the oasis and see if we could get some water before the others get here. I'll get some while you can explore the area."

"That sounds fine to me." Lavi said. She released Kora from her orange digivice and ran off into the city.

Selene giggled at her friend's energy and motioned for the Lekismon to follow her. They maneuvered across the road, evading the Togemon villager's spines. Luna and Selene noticed that they stuck out among the vegetation digimon.

"There are a lot of these guys here." Selene said to Luna.

"I guess so. These Togemon have adapted to desert life quite well."

"Really? So you remember something?"

Luna quieted for a moment. "Sorry, only some trivial facts, any memories connecting these guys to me are still gone."

"You'd think being in the digital world would have helped out your memory problems." Luna stopped walking. "What's wrong?"

The Lekismon pointed to the front of them. An angelic digimon walked among the Togemon. "She looks familiar… but I can't remember…"

"Good enough for me." Selene said. "HEY YOU!" She called out to the angel. The angelic digimon turned around and looked at them. Its eyes widened with fearful recognition and then charged away. "Hey, wait!"

Luna grabbed Selene and jumped out of the crowd. They quickly ran after the angel. She saw that they were following her and pulled out a blade from behind her.

_**DANCING SWORD!**_

The blade flashed in front of the two, making them move back a bit. The digimon slowly moved backwards, her sword ready to strike if any of them moved.

"No one does that to my friend!" Selene looked up and saw Lavi riding on Firamon's back.

_**FIRA BOMB!**_

The winged lion shot a powerful fireball from his forehead. The angelic digimon quickly slashed the attack in half, causing it to miss her. The two halves of the fireball didn't miss the grass huts behind her.

"Oops." Lavi grimaced as the crowd of vegetation digimon quickly ran towards the oasis to put out the fire.

Selene saw a shadow leap from another hut and then lunge behind her friend. "Look out!" She called. Lavi and Kora only had time to look at their attacker before the attack came.

_**DEATH BEHIND!**_

A black clad dinosaur slashed the fiery lion with its razor-sharp knives, sending the lion flying across the street. Lavi leaped from her partner's back, Luna ran forward to catch the human. The Firamon crashed into another hut; its bodily flames set the debris on fire.

"What was that?" Lavi groaned. Kora stumbled out of the blazes into the sandy street next to Luna. The dinosaur leaped from the building and landed next to the angel who said something to him while pointing at them.

They grabbed their weapons and turned at the four to attack.

"That can't be good." Kora groaned.

Before the attacking digimon could reach them, a flash of crimson light appeared in the sky, making all who saw it need to shield their eyes.

It quickly faded, and moments later a large orange dinosaur with blue stripes landed in the middle of the street. It was almost twice as tall as Luna, had spikes on its arms, and a tough shell on its head covered with horns and red stripes. Selene thought that it was like some of the Greymon that appeared in the human world before, but this one was leaner, and seemed fiercer then the ones she had seen.

After it landed on the sand something landed on its head, a human in black and red. "Draco?" She said in disbelief. Just then the dinosaur digimon let out an ear-shattering roar.

"So, does anyone want to explain what exactly is going on here?" He said.

After he had Damian use a water attribute card to put out the burning buildings. The four humans sat in one of the grass huts with the two champion digimon. Luna and Kora sat on their partner's laps, Vee sat at Damian's feet, and Blaze laid sleepily on the grass woven floor.

"I'm so sorry for attacking you." The D'arcmon, who introduced herself as Dana (she still struck anyone who called her Darcy, namely Blaze), said. "I mistook you for someone else."

"Really?" Selene asked. "We called you out to see if you could remember seeing Luna before."

The Sealsdramon, or Seth, took over the conversation. "It may have been from her days in the Holy Army." He mused.

"What?" Vee and Blaze exclaimed. They looked to Luna and Kora to see if they had any similar reactions. They looked confused.

"I thought those that deserted from the Army were 'Taken Care of'? Did I listen to the wrong rumors?" Vee asked dramatically.

"Oh no." Dana said grimly. "They will send digimon to get rid of you, usually your old friends there, making it either you or them."

"That's heavy." Draco noted. "But what made you want to leave?"

"Yeah, why risk everything?" Damian added. She smiled and held Seth's hand.

"Oh." Said the boys.

"Yeah, it was a wild battle between the Utopian and Holy Armies. Our eyes met and it was love right there… you know after she tried to rip out my guts and decapitate me a couple of times."

"Wait, so you were in the Utopian army?" Selene asked.

"Indeed I was missy. One of the top Commandramons in my unit." Seth said pridefully.

"So you had to fight them too?" Luna asked.

Seth laughed, his mechanical eyes rotating. "Of course not. My general isn't the control freak like the one in Holy. He gave me some vacation time until I'm needed again."

"Woah… that's…" Damian searched for the appropriate words. "…Great to hear?"

"So what kinds of artifacts are those armies looking for?" Draco said abruptly.

Seth became silent for a moment. "My commander is searching for an artifact from the Age of Knights."

"The _what_?" Lavi asked. It went ignored by the digimon.

"He's looking for an object that can turn one into a being beyond the Mega Level."

"And he's sending his army to scour the digital world for it?" Damian gasped.

"Nope." Seth laughed. "When the war started, all three generals somehow turned into the rookie level. He's recuperated a bit, but getting back to Mega is his main concern. But he did send want ads around the digital world in case somebody else already found it. See?"

He fished around for a flyer and handed it to the humans.

"Wanted:" Damian read aloud. "One super powerful relic that can change the very balance of the entire digital world. Offering a favorable award. Call the nearest Utopian Army base for more details. Help the War Effort Today."

"Yeah, that's not weird at all." Lavi said sarcastically.

"What about your general?" Blaze asked.

Dana looked around as if there was someone else listening to the story. Sure that she was safe, she began to speak. "The Leader never divulged on why he wanted to find him, but he wanted to find a member of the broken Triblade Army." The others looked at Draco and Blaze, who looked solemn. "You know I believe that it is a great story. A human and seven digimon banded together and broke the leaders of the Age of Demons. Do you know of it?"

"Yes." Draco said softly. "I know it quite well."

"Right, well, the Commander is looking for one of its old members. Apparently it's one of the most famous ones. It's the one that can slide evolve at will. I can understand why he would want a digimon like that as a subordinate."

"Thank you for talking with us." Draco said, standing up and bowing, "We should get going. There's still a lot to do for our journey."

"You can stay with us." Seth said, "We don't mind having some guests here. It'll liven up the place for a bit."

"We wouldn't want to intrude." Draco said.

"It's fine." Dana smiled. "We can help out with your errands. It won't give us trouble. Besides, it's almost nighttime."

"What?" Selene exclaimed. She looked outside and saw that the sun is still directly overhead. "It doesn't seem later than noon." She said.

Dana looked outside while Draco sighed and started to count down. "Wait for it." The angelic digimon said.

"Zero." The Sun outside instantly dimmed out, the blue sky turned black, the white data streams gained a luminous glow. It was like somebody turned off a light switch. "You can still time it out." Draco chuckled. "It guess we're staying then." He said to the Sealsdramon.

Seth chuckled and stood up. "Well then I hope you'll have a good night then."


	6. Bereaved

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon**_

**Bereaved**

Selene woke up in the middle of the night… or what she believed was the middle of the night, the time was still hard to distinguish. She got out of the sleeping bags that the digimon couple gave them and walked to get a glass of water.

She walked to the storage and noticed a glow coming from outside of the hut. Selene saw Draco sitting on the porch, fiddling with his digivice.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

Draco looked up and noticed he had company. He turned back to his digivice. "Back in the day, this thing used to be able to communicate with other members. I think Blaze was able to get there because of that lingering connection. Maybe I can find someone else through this link too, or at least call them."

"Right." She said. "So does that mean you had other partners besides Blaze?"

The boy chuckled as his fingers stilled, lost in his memories. "Yeah, but Blaze was one of my Ace digimon. I wonder how everyone else is doing."

He started to work on the digivice again. For a moment it created a screeching sound, and the holographic map appeared. A cascade of red dots flooded the map, blinking on and off randomly. Finally they stilled, many disappeared, but seven of them remained, scattered throughout the digital world. They stayed for one moment and then the device shut down, the only remaining light came from the moon.

"What was that?" Selene asked.

Draco was silent, but then began to chuckle, slowly rising to a fit of laughter. "All of them are fine." He sighed. "And another one is in the next city!"

"That's good for you." Selene said, yawning. "I believe it's late, I'm going back to sleep."

When she left, Draco returned to his digivice. "Did you see where they all were?" He asked it.

"Yes." Said a voice in the machine. "What should we do, General?"

"To be honest, I don't know Blaze. I guess we'll see when the time comes."

"Ok. General, you should head off to sleep. Humans need their rest after all."

* * *

The next day, the champion digimon decided to show the group around the town.

"You really don't have to do this." Draco said.

"Oh, don't worry. We insist." Dana said. "Ok, so the girls and I'll go and look for your water while the boys go and get some food, alright?"

Selene nodded with Lavi quickly dragging her to follow the angelic digimon. "So where are we going?" She asked. "The oasis?"

The D'arcmon shook her head. "No, that water is used mainly to wash and irrigation. We get our drinking water from a well."

"Great. We have to pull up heavy buckets of water while the guys just easily pick up food." Lavi growled.

"When you say 'We', you're really saying 'Kora', right." Luna said from Selene's digivice.

"Yup." She replied. A groan came from her digivice.

They arrived at the well, where a line of Togemon and Palmon were waiting their turn to get water.

"That's a long line." Lavi whistled. The whistling became louder.

"Lavi, do you mind stopping?" Selene asked, "It's getting on my nerves."

"But I stopped whistling a while ago." The orange clad girl replied, confused.

"Oh, no." They saw Dana pale. "GET DOWN!" She screamed. The angelic digimon tackled the girls down to the ground. Moments later, a powerful gust of wind stormed overhead. It cut down the Togemon in the way until it hit the well, sending up a large column of sand. The Palmon stared in horror as their champion friends dissolved into bits of data, reforming into black backed cards. Dana quickly grabbed for her swords when the whistling came again.

_**DANCING SWORD!**_

Her sharp blades cut apart the next gust of wind. The D'arcmon quickly regained her stance. Selene and Lavi reached for their digivices.

_**Kurukuru Rekkūzan!**_

A flash of blue appeared along with a high-pitched wail, spinning like a saw. The attack ripped apart one of Dana's blades. She used the other one to push the attack back. The spinning stopped, and a four-legged digimon landed in the sandy street. It wore a white and red mask, a red and white rope collar around its neck, and its tail was a razor-sharp blue and red blade. The digimon had creamy fur on its body and brown on its legs.

"What is that?" Selene said as she let out Luna from her digivice.

Dana scowled. "It's one of the holy army's strongest members, a digimon that goes by 'Slayer'."

"Why are the cuddly looking ones the deadliest?" Lavi sighed as Kora appeared to her side.

The foxlike digimon noticed the two girls pulling out cards for Evolution. It lunged forward and sliced apart the cards as it past. Before either Selene or Lavi could pull out a spare, the digimon head-butted their partners knocking them out. With that threat out-of-the-way, it focused its attention on the angel.

_**Shinkū Kama-**_

_**DEATH BEHIND!**_

Seth suddenly appeared with his knives. Slayer gave no sign of caring about the attack, but its tail moved on its own and disarmed the Sealsdramon. Selene saw Draco and Damian appearing from where the black clad digimon had emerged. "A Reppamon!" Draco exclaimed. "Be careful, its tail has a mind of its own."

"It's a bit late for that!" Lavi yelled.

_**SHARP CLAW!**_

Blaze, with his claws out stretched, and charged at the champion, who blocked the attack with its own claws. Blaze struggled to pull free as Damian pulled out Vee's Evolution card, but a blade of wind ripped the card in half. "My card!" The boy exclaimed.

The Reppamon looked around it. Its target, a champion, another champion, and two rookies encircled it. It growled a bit, its tail gave out a metallic squeal.

"Can't you still digivolve Blaze to champion?" Damian whispered to Draco.

The black clad boy shook his head. "A twelve-foot tall, fire blasting dinosaur in a village full of grass huts? Lavi showed that fire's a bad idea." He whispered back.

"I heard that!" Lavi hissed.

The growls and squeals stopped, both sides of the digimon came to a consensus. It quickly threw Blaze into a grass hut behind Seth. Vee ran to help the Agumon. Slayer gave a gleeful snort and charged at the black armored digimon. The Sealsdramon reached for his knives instinctively, forgetting for a moment that they were already gone.

_**Kurukuru Rekkūzan!**_

The fox digimon spun forward, its tail following suit with the power of a saw. Seth gave a defiant chuckle, knowing who will get hit if he moved. Selene saw Damian crying out and Lavi looking away. She couldn't help but look away as well. The wail stopped, and a horrible scream filled the air in its place.

Selene opened her eyes and gasped, some tears forming in her eyes. The Reppamon's tail pierced through Dana's body. She had pushed out Seth with no hesitation. The D'arcmon gave them one last smile before bursting apart into bits of data.

"Mission Complete." Slayer said in a bored drone. It quickly leaped on to a hut and then jumped into a digital stream, vanishing completely.

A solemn silence descended down the battlefield. Seth dropped to his knees and stared at the D'arcmon card in front of him. "I'm weak." They heard the champion digimon whisper.

The trio tried to go and comfort the digimon, but Draco held them back. "Doing that will only make things worse." He said grimly. Behind them the Palmon and Togemon gathered around the square and mourned their fallen friends.

"This is horrible." Selene gasped.

"This is war." Draco said. "And this isn't as bad as it'll get."

He walked away towards the broken well as the heavy words sunk in.

Even so, Damian walked to Seth's side, his hand tightly clenching Vee's. The digimon's scopes overflowed with fluid. Unable to find the right words, Damian quickly bowed his head. "I'm sorry."

The champion digimon broke from his trance. "There is nothing for you to be sorry for." He whispered. A dark gleam appeared from behind the glass. "It's the Holy Army that will be sorry."

Damian flinched. Seth's voice had darkened and became cold. The digimon became silent once more, thinking over his next choice. He handed the boy D'arcmon's card. "I have to leave everything behind now, there's no room for regrets. Keep this safe for me." The champion then leaped into the sky, catching a data stream and vanishing.

Damian hugged Veemon tightly. "Um, I think he needs air." Lavi pointed out. The boy released his partner from the constricting embrace.

"Can we get stronger?" He whispered. The light disappeared. Is it already night? Selene wondered. She looked up and saw a towering digimon.

"Catch!" A voice came from the top. A deck of cards fell down to Daimian's hands.

Draco looked down at the trio. "Are we going to go or not?" He asked them. The Geogreymon he road on roared. "Blaze is getting impatient to leave."

Damian looked at his friend, then back to the broken oasis town. Then he slowly walked on to the back of the digimon, who crouched down. Selene and Lavi followed after. Within moments the digimon went into the desert.

A while later, Damian fanned through the deck. There were a few Evolve cards, a few rookie and champion cards, and at the end were one or two Togemon cards. "What are these cards?" He asked.

"Donations to the war effort." Draco told him. "Those cards are some of the victims that had been caught up in the war. A Palmon gave them to me when I got some water."

"Really?" Selene looked around Blaze's back. "I don't see it."

"What am I? A pack-horse?" The champion growled.

"That's not what I-"

Draco held up his digivice. "The digivice can store other things than digimon." He pressed a button and a few lasers hit the trio's digivices. "There, I just transported some of the supplies to you guys."

"I did not know about that." Lavi said. In the horizon a dark shape loomed in the distance. The humans gasped as the light revealed a massive city. Then the sound of turbines suddenly filled the desert air. "They have planes in the digital world!" She exclaimed.

Draco's eyes widened. "Could it be?"

_**MISSILE STORM!**_

A barrage of missiles descended from the sky above. They landed in the sand around Blaze, kicking up a large cloud. Before they went up to her eyes, Selene saw a purple object streaking into the cloud. Moments later the sand cloud dissipated. Coughing, the humans looked around to see what attacked them, but noticed something else. The dark clad boy vanished from the back of the digimon's horns. "Draco!" The Geogreymon yelled in fear. It charged forward, the remaining humans grabbing on to the digimon's orange skin, and rushed straight for the city in the distance.

* * *

The factory was large and loomed over the city on an ominous hill. Two Troopmon stood in front of the gate, keeping watch through their gas mask covered eyes for any threats.

A digimon appeared from the data streams above landing in front of them. They prepared themselves for an attack but the new arrival quickly stopped them. "Stand down soldiers!" The commanding voice ordered. "Let me in I have to speak with the Commander. The rubbery digimon recognized the digimon and saluted, radioing the inside to open the gates.

Inside, boiling vats of black rubber poured into the molds of Troopmon suits. Waiting digimon cards were in a large press that inserted one into finished suits. The suits then sparked to life, creating a new soldier for the army.

Deeper inside of the factory was a room that could be described as a throne room, but the sign outside of the door said, "Manager's Office". The digimon walked inside and bowed to the digimon sitting behind a large desk.

"Seth," the tall digimon greeted, "Or should I say 195208? What are you doing back here? I thought you were on vacation leave."

"I ran into some trouble and ended it early." The Sealsdramon replied. "I see you have turned into Ultimate."

"Yes, it took a lot of data to make that happen." The digimon said. "So why the visit? If you wanted to return to work, shouldn't you have rejoined your group?"

Seth sighed and bowed to his commander once more. "During my vacation, I found out that I was too weak, and…" He growled. "I have more resolve to end this war."

The Sealsdramon kneeled down to one leg. "Please use me for Operation GIGA." He begged.

"GIGA? There is a 99% casualty chance if you go through that!" The Commander explained.

"Then I'll either become the one percent, or become fodder for the one percent." Seth said coldly. "Whatever it'll take to end this war."

The commander was silent, but then began to chuckle. "Whatever happened, you really grew a pair from it." He said. "Welcome to the Operation. You'll be our seventh subject."

"Thank you, Commander." Seth bowed.

The digimon chuckled again. "You can knock back the formalities a bit, 195208."

"Yes, Sir, Arkadimon."

AN: Thank you for those who have read this far. Please give me some feedback so I can make this story become better.


	7. Dradi

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Digimon**_

**Dradi**

"Draco!" Blaze roared. The dinosaur digimon frantically charged through the desert, following a purple speck in the sky.

Selene held on tightly to the raging digimon. He moved quickly for a creature that was as tall as a house. Blaze closed in a lot of ground between them and the speck, which widened into the silhouette of a winged digimon holding a human in its claws.

_**MEGA SHOT!**_

A blast of flames spewed from his mouth. The flying digimon easily evaded the flame. It missed and disappeared into a data stream. The digimon released another barrage of missiles. Blaze accelerated to avoid the attack, invoking screams of fear from the passengers on his back. Well, most of his passengers, Lavi was cheering with delight and encouraged him to run faster.

The city grew closer as the chase carried on. When they reached it, the purple digimon lowered its altitude and glided above the desert, just enough for Draco's feet to skim the sand.

Blaze saw the city and then skidded to a stop. A tall, wide, and durable wall surrounded the city. Behind the wall was the immense shape of a tall tower. The purple digimon flew past a gate, cutting past a line of digimon.

The Geogreymon tried to get through, but he got pushed back by the crowd with angry growls of "No Cuts!". Growled in annoyance and slowly walked to the end of the line, flames sparking from his mouth.

* * *

Draco felt nauseated. The Pteramon that had taken him set him down right after entering the city. Once the dizziness faded, he got a good look at the city. It was nothing like the village that they were at before. The buildings were made from stone, as were the sidewalks and streets. There was a larger diversity of digimon that lived there.

"Wow." Draco said, impressed.

"It is a beautiful city isn't it." The boy turned and saw his abductor standing next to him. He nodded. "Did you know that this city was razed down to nothing but ashes and data bits during the Demons' Age. We managed to rebuild our wonderful town, or home to its former glory." The digimon chuckled bitterly. "But now another war threatens to destroy our work and our lives once more! Every day the three armies are getting stronger, every day the devastation gets worse, and more refugees head into our city."

The Pteramon turned to Draco and bowed his head. "I do not want to witness Dradi fall once more. Please allow me to return to duty and take part in this war, my General."

* * *

Luna had woken up a few moments earlier. Kora, who awakened during the ride, filled in what had happened to the rabbit digimon. She wiped away a tear and hugged Selene's leg. "Poor Dana." She whimpered.

A few moments later, Damian felt bored with the silence.

"Hey, Blaze." Damian said. "Why are you still in champion form? Shouldn't the evolution have worn off by now?"

Blaze chuckled. "No. Evolution usually requires a certain amount of data to reach the next level. I believe your method of evolving boosts your data, but eats it up over time or when you take injury, regressing to your lower states. Draco uses a different source than defeated digimon data, one that keeps us in our forms until he lowers the data in our systems or if we take a substantial amount of damage."

"So you guys use a different mechanic than we do."

"I guess do."

They were nearing the front of the line, with only a couple of groups in front of them. A group of fresh digimon was traveling with a tall purple bird. The slime-like digimon were black and furry, dark and smoky, pale and slimy, white and cute, and teal and adorable. Selene expected Draco to say their names, but then remembered why they had taken a thrill ride on Blaze before. She took out her digivice and pressed a button on it. A hologram appeared with the name and picture of the digimon.

_DIGIMON IDENTIFIED:_

_CHAMPION: PECKMON_

_IN-TRAINING: BOTAMON – MOKUMON – PICHIMON – PUTTIMON – PETITMON_

Beside her, Blaze, who was still in his champion form, tapped his foot impatiently. The movement kicked up a small cloud of sand, which flew at the group in front of them. "Hey, Geogreymon! Do you mind?" The Peckmon blew away the cloud with his wing. "There are children here. They've been through enough without getting the coughs."

"Sorry Peckmon." Blaze said.

"Why are you talking to each other with your digimon names?" Luna asked.

Blaze looked at the rabbit digimon. "Our species names are like human Surnames and our first names are like human given names, only with the first names we usually give out to friends, or relatives, or people who won't exist long enough for it to matter." The dinosaur digimon explained. "I thought you would now something like that, it's a common custom in the digital world."

The Lunamon looked flustered. "I didn't know that…" She muttered.

The Petitmon fluttered over to the humans. It looked at Selene, then scrunched its face and stuck out its tongue. Then it did the same to Lavi, then Damian. It then looked at Blaze with recognition, nestling on the Geogreymon's head.

"Petitmon!" Peckmon cried out worriedly. "Get down from there."

The teal slime chirped and stuck out its tongue, then hid behind Blaze's front horn. Peckmon sighed. "That brat, it'd stayed at the center for years, but it never took a shine towards anyone in all that time."

A digimon at the gate called for them to enter. Peckmon gathered up the other in-trainings and then called out for Petitmon. It didn't leave. "Well, there's no helping it. Have fun, and be safe."

"What!" Blaze roared. "You can't just leave me with this kid! Hey you, get off of me!" Petitmon cooed and stayed on the Geogreymon's grey carapace.

Blaze was still arguing with the in-training when the Peckmon entered the city. For a moment, Selene felt a glare coming from the baby digimon, but then forgot about it as it passed.

"Finally our turn." Blaze mumbled when they reached the gate. A voice called for them to enter one at a time. He went in first.

Blaze met a digimon. It stood behind a desk inside of the gate. The digimon had three faces with horned masks, one was red, another yellow, and the last was purple. It had a dark-skinned body with scant golden armor, and four flaming hands.

"Hello! We are Asuramon, and we bless your stay at the Grand City of Dradi!" The yellow right face greeted.

"Unless you break a law!" The central red face exclaimed. "Then we will get you! And make you PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES!" It grinded its burning knuckles together threateningly.

"It won't be that bad though." The purple left face said. "It's only a day in prison for minor offenses. There are not many rules; just normal social standards are fine."

"So what's your reason for visiting, or are you more refugees?" The three faces asked in unison.

"Search, Destroy, and Recover." Blaze told them.

They laughed. "No seriously, what are you intending to do."

"I am here to reunite with my friends, who have already arrived inside."

"Alright then." The yellow mask said. "Have a blessed time."

"And don't you try anything." Growled the red.

The group passed through some scanners and entered the city. Standing near the gate stood the purple digimon and Draco. They looked like they had waited for the entire time.

Blaze roared and charged at the other dinosaur digimon. "ACE! You stinking son of a –"

"Degenerate." Draco said calmly. A red glow shrouded the champion, and then collected into a laser that returned to the digivice. Blaze shrunk back into rookie form, and couldn't stop the run he started when he was still a champion. He crashed into the Armor Level's head and ricocheted off, crashing on to the ground.

"Ow." He groaned. Petitmon hovered next to the rookie. It turned and looked at Draco, and its eyes flashed with glee. It squealed happily and landed on the boy's shoulder, chirping rapidly in an unusual pattern.

"Who's this guy?" Draco asked.

"Some Peckmon brought a bunch of in-training to the city. This guy stuck with me for some reason."

"Draco!" Damian exclaimed. "You're alright!" The boy cringed when he saw the purple armored digimon. "It's that guy!"

"Relax." Draco said. "I'll explain once everyone arrives."

When Selene arrived and she agreed to listen, though her digivice was in one hand and her fingers twitched over her deck.

Lavi rushed to attack the Pteramon when she saw it, and her friends quickly restrained her before she could cause any irreparable damage. "You'll pay for getting sand all over us." She growled.

"I am sorry for my actions. Let me introduce myself. My name is Ace, and I was a Privet in the old Triblade army."

"Really? You used to fight with Blaze?" Vee asked. He had popped out from Damian's digivice to have a better look at the digimon.

"Indeed I did. Yesterday a broadcast showed of a fight between you all and a member of the Grim army. It was probably the Grim army that aired it in the first place. You never know what their commander is thinking. Oh, right, off topic. Anyways I haven't seen my old comrades in a long time and as I you were easy to pick out with my eyesight, I wanted to test out if you have dulled over the years. Obviously you are the same… still the same as that time."

The digimon ended his explanation with a bitter tone. Petitmon chirped and squealed rapidly, waving its wings. Everyone else was listening to the armored digimon, Draco scratched its head to try to calm it down. It gave up and sniffled a bit."

"Well enough of that, I was quite surprised when I saw that three humans were also with you. I didn't expect you to be that close to other humans. I guess times have changed. I'm sure you've all had a long day, come with me. I know a place where you can rest, it's getting late."

Ace began to waddle away, with Draco following. Lavi and Damian looked to Selene, who shrugged and followed. The two then followed with their friend.

* * *

When they reached their destination, night arrived. Ace lead them to a large brick house with multiple rooms. He pecked out a combination into a key pad on the door. Inside, dust floated in the air and collected on to old papers and artifacts that were scattered around the house.

"Welcome to my humble abode." He said gleefully as he led them inside. He walked past a table filled with old papers with nonsensical writing on it. The Pteramon stopped by a table that was filled with old trinkets. "General Draco, look at the items that I have found in my spare time."

"Why is this place such a mess?" Damian asked.

"Oh, I dabble in archeology." Ace replied. "The past is an amazing source of power. The General knows that well, right?"

Draco nodded.

"I've found interesting trinkets while you were away." Ace continued. On the table laid a few shards, an old red and white sandal, a broken scythe, and an old necklace. "These are the more important items that I've found. He looked at the table with some pride. "See, the shoe and the blade were from the Olympian's Age."

Ace picked the two items up with a claw. "These were from before the system changed turned defeated digimon into cards. Back then the dead became something like human corpses. Bodies without a sou, bodies that slowly decayed back into the digital world. Like the cards, these objects still bear intense memories of whoever they belonged to in the past. Sometimes a reaction will occur when a reincarnated digimon touches something from their past life."

Luna reloaded out of Selene's digivice. "Wow." She said. "Those look pretty." Suddenly she slowly walked towards the objects, as if in a trance. "They look so familiar." She whispered. The rabbit digimon touched the sandal, and then her pink eyes widened, dulled and then became flooded with blue light.

"Oh my." Ace muttered. "What on earth?"

Lunamon began to scream. Looks of worry appeared on her friends, Korra reloaded himself to see what was going on with her. Through her blue eyes, Luna lost all recognition of her surroundings and began to speak some nonsensical phrases before screaming again.

"Venusmon!" She cried out, her eyes lost in another world. "Watch out!"

The trio, Vee, and Korra all rushed to help the rabbit digimon. Draco and Ace looked at Blaze, who stood there, guilt ridden. The humans and digimon touched the rabbit and collapsed, Lunamon's vision affecting them all as well. The members of Triblade looked on grimly.

"So they'll see it?" Blaze whispered.

"It looks like it. This is just like the time when you touched that sword Blaze." Ace said.

"Exactly like that time." Draco added. Petitmon shivered.

"The memories must have been strong. Lunamon must have been a powerful digimon if she was close enough to Venusmon for the sandal to affect her." Ace said putting down the white sandel, still covered in the blood of its owner after many years."

"Do you think we should help?" Draco asked the digimon.

Blaze chuckled grimly. "I don't think I can bear it again." Petitmon squealed sadly.

"Then let's wait. The effects of the Digi-Memory should end soon enough."


	8. Memories

_**I don't own Digimon : Disclaimer**_

**Memories**

Selene shuddered as Ace's room faded away. A still darkness appeared, like a lapse in a memory, before flooding with light. When she could see again, Selene noticed that she was in a courtyard. Grass and roses grew along the marble road. Marble arches stretched endlessly in a circle, with stone benches and canopies of flowers. A large marble castle carved into a mountain towered behind the glade. Selene gasped at the majesty of the building.

She heard a scream. Selene turned around and saw a digimon in blue and white. The digimon had a white mask covering her mouth, her legs and shoulderguards were shaped like crescent moons. It had two blue ear-like horns protruding from her head, and blue spines and pink ribbons descended down her back.

_**Dianamon**_

She didn't know how she knew the name, but it seemed like the world whispered the name to her.

Armed, Dianamon walked backwards from an assailant. She clutched a navy and white double-edged scythe. "Please stop Victorygreymon, you aren't acting like yourself."

The assailant was an orange dragon clad in golden armor. It held a bastard sword over its armored shoulder. The sword was segmented into three blades. Crimson blades dripped down the three sharp blades.

VictoryGreymon gave a malicious chuckle, casually swinging his blade which easily cut down the marble pillars. It glared at Dianamon with spiteful red eyes.

"VictoryGreymon? Is that how we are now, Arty?" The gold clad dragon growled.

Dianamon swallowed nervously. "Look, we can fix this. Just talk to me, that's all you wanted right? To talk?"

"Talk? Yes… NO! There won't be any more talking!" VictoryGreymon's eyes flickered green for a moment before returning to red.

The draconic digimon charged, striking at the other with his sword. Dianamon guarded the blows.

"Dianamon!" Another voice cried out. "It's horrible! Everyone's been killed!"

A scantily dressed digimon ran out of the castle. Her long white dress trailed behind her, her boot sandals clapped on the ground, and her long braided hair, tied in white ribbons, flew behind her.

Venusmon

The ghostly whisper came to her again. A dove was on Venusmon's shoulder and a scallop in her left hand, the female digimon stunned in horror after seeing the scene from behind her blindfolded eyes.

"Vick? It was Victor?" Venusmon gasped.

VictoryGreymon turned his horned head at the new arrival, giving Dianamon enough time for a counter-attack. She swung her blade and struck the draconic digimon in his face.

GOODNIGHT MOON!

A laser shot from her leg armor and struck him. VictoryGreymon dropped his blade and crashed into a pillar. It broke apart and caused an entire arch to fall on top of him. The digimon stubbornly emerged from the rubble.

"He's still not out from my attack?" Dianamon observed in shock. "Venusmon!" The humanoid digimon knew what to do.

HEALING THERAPY! PEACE FANTASIA!

Venusmon caressed the draconic digimon's head and the bird pricked his head. He shuddered and the red glow faded into black; then he collapsed on to the rubble.

"That should do it." Venusmon gasped. Dianamon sighed and collapsed to her knees.

Selene sighed as well, hoping that it was over. Those hopes died when the red glow returned to the eyes.

"WATCH OUT!" Dianamon and Selene called out at the same time.

The bastard sword split into two blades and connected themselves on to VictoryGreymon's gauntlets. He burst out of the rubble and grabbed Venusmon. He lifted the humanoid digimon up by the neck. She choked from the vice-like grip. Her two animals tried to attack VictoryGreymon to no avail.

Dianamon quickly stood up and rushed to the two. The blades grew red with energy.

Trident Gaia.

VictoryGreymon called out the attack in a cold voice. Before the attack started, Selene saw Venusmon give a last smile that eerily resembled another that she had seen earlier that day.

"NO!" Dianamon swung her twin scythes, but she was too late. The energy beams easily ripped through the goddess digimon, creating large holes in the mega's body.

Selene, who had watched the event avidly, noticed that the world began to flicker. The voices were getting blurry. Oh my… Venusmon must still be alive. Selene realized.

The world disappeared into black, then returned, with more time passed by each time.

Dianamon screamed at VictoryGreymon. Black.

VictoryGreymon's eyes flickered colors. Black.

The two megas became locked in combat. Black.

Dianamon threw VictoryGreymon into another pillar. Black.

Dianamon shot a lumionous blue arrow at the draconic digimon. Black.

Dianamon had been stabbed with her own arrow. VictoryGreymon's eyes switched colors at a rapid rate. Black.

VictoryGreymon, his eyes green as emeralds, cradled Dianamon's body in his arms. Tears flowed down as an ominous red shadow hung over his back. Black once more, this time the illusion shattered. The memory ended. She was back, and her head hurt like hell.

She looked around and saw that everyone else had a similar headache. Draco helped carry out a tray with water. "What was that?" She heard Damian groan. They accepted the cups of water, not noticing until then that they were sweating like crazy.

"I told you. Sometimes the memories create a reaction when in contact with someone it was close to in the past." Ace explained.

Luna shuddered awake. "How can that be?" She cried out. "I saw tall powerful megas!"

"Yeah, how could she make a reaction that powerful?" Selene asked, wondering if this had something to do with her partner's missing past.

Draco took up the conversation. "The system of the leftover data has changed with each passing age, but there is something that has never changed. The original core of the digimon gets recycled back into the world and it is used to create a new digimon. Though again, sometimes the memories from their past life are strong enough to be reincarnated as the same species of digimon with a new slate, or they might even be reborn as if they never died, with all of their memories intact… with all of their sins to bear."

"But what happened? Why did that happen?" Luna asked, somewhat hysteric. Selene saw that Luna had found a large lead to the quest that the little rabbit digimon had searched for since before they teamed up.

The Pteramon picked up the broken scythe in his claw. "Perhaps this could bear a different memory, or it will show the same memory that you all witness, only in Dianamon's view. Or it could be both." The pterosaur digimon looked at Luna. "Will you take the risk?"

The Lunamon looked troubled. Her hand twitched toward the tantalizing memories. Some of the answers she was searching for could be right there, but did she really want to experience that again? Selene took the broken weapon and loaded it into her digivice. "I'll hold on to this until you make up your mind." Luna nodded gratefully.

"What are the other things on the table?" Blaze asked.

"Some interesting trinkets. However, I am sure you all have had a tiring day." Ace said. "I believe what you all need now is some rest. You may ask whatever of me in the morning."

Later that night, Selene woke up again. This time she had a nightmare from the memories that they had seen earlier that night. She could hear her friends tossing and turning in the darkness. Selene looked at the digivice in her hand, the image of the scythe visible in the screen.

Images from the memory flashed by her, one of the most prominent was from the last scene. The shadow that clung to the dragon warrior's back. Did that have something to do with the possessed eyes? She wondered. A light flickered in another room, curious she walked over by the door and peeked through the cracks.

"So whaat do you have here?" Draco yawned.

Ace looked groggy, while Blaze looked excited with Petitmon sleeping on his head. "I guess I'll talk about these things now, since a certain Captain can't wait for a few more hours." The Pterosaur digimon gestured to the necklace. "So I found this in a burial ground aging back to the Knight's Age."

"You went tomb robbing?" Blaze asked with glee. "Man, Caliber would have a field day if he heard that."

"Yes. He would." Ace said giving a longing chuckle. Petitmon woke up and started squealing like crazy, knocking the purple digimon out of his funk. "Right. It seems like an important trinket, but I guess it needs a specific digimon in order for something to occur." Draco held up the square necklace, looking at how nice the red gem in the center looked.

Ace then gestured to the shards. "I don't know what these are, but I guess that they are something important."

"You guess?" Blaze asked. "The great archeologist Ace GUESSES that they are something important?"

Petitmon chattered angrily and bit Blaze in the head. "So what happened?" Draco asked while the two digimon squabbled.

Ace gave an annoyed chuckle. "The box that these came in also had a stone inscription on the bottom. The stone was too heavy to take with me, so I took a charcoal rubbing of it. However, before I got the chance to translate it at home, my assistant accidentally spilled water on it."

"That bites. So Blaze, are you satisfied yet?" Draco asked. The reptilian digimon paused from his brawl with the in-training to agree. "Great. It's time for some sleep then." The boy yawned and crawled into his sleeping bag. "Good night." He yawned.

Selene yawned and went back to sleep as well.

* * *

The next day, Ace gathered everyone into the main room. "Alright everyone, I have special news to tell you all." The purple armored digimon said when they gathered.

"Did you make cookies?" Blaze asked.

"No."

"Brownies?" Veemon asked hopefully.

"No, the news has nothing to do with snacks." Ace sighed. "However, when this city was rebuilt, I built a special chamber to act as an impenetrable hiding place to put in artifacts if I needed to have one."

"That seems a bit extravagant." Korra commented.

"Maybe, but it did come in handy. After the war started, I found something important and hid it there, just in case."

"A Ring?" Draco guessed.

"Yes." Ace said. "I'll lead you to it, when should we leave?"

Draco looked over to the trio, giving the choice to them. Selene felt Damian and Lavi staring at her for her decision. "It's fine if we go now."

The front door slammed opened suddenly, surprising everyone, except for Ace who sighed. A digimon walked inside, carrying a large bag that was bigger than the digimon. "Hello Mr. Pteramon." The digimon said. "I'm sorry that I'm late. There was a lot of traffic and I had to wait a while for them to let me pass."

The digimon put down the bag and moved to greet the winged digimon. Then it noticed that Ace had guests. "Oh, hello there." It greeted.

"A Biyomon." Draco muttered.

"Yes, um. Guys, this is my assistant. Biyomon, there are some acquaintances from a long time ago."

"Oh, where did you guys meet?" Biyomon asked. Ace looked uncomfortable while searching for an answer to give his assistant.

"We were comrades in arms during the war to take down the Age of Demons. He was a lower rank than me, but we were still close." Blaze said while looking inside of the bag, saddened when he only found old scrolls.

Biyomon laughed. "Mr. Pteramon as a fighter? You're pretty funny." Draco noticed the purple armored digimon looked extremely worried now.

"How so?"

"You know that he isn't much of a fighter. Does he look like a hardened veteran to you?"

"Nope." Blaze said. Petitmon unleashed a barrage of annoyed chattering.

"Yeah, we met for a curating job a few years ago." The Pteramon said quickly. "I was just taking them to go and see some of my finds. We were just leaving." He gestured for them to go.

"All right then, I'll catch up on some of the work I have left."

"Yes, you do that." Everyone had left, and he was almost out the door. "Though, just so you know. My name is Ace."

"Yes, I am well aware of that Mr. Pteramon." The Biyomon grinned. "I'll see you when you return."

"I hope so Ms. Bianca." He closed the door. "I hope so."

"Are you done flirting?" Blaze said to the digimon. Ace ignored the comment.

"It's this way." Ace said maneuvering into the building crowd. The group quickly followed the digimon, and an unnoticed observer followed them as well.


	9. Attacked

_**Disclaimer: Still do not own Digimon.**_

**Attacked**

Ace lead the group to the tallest tower in the town, a large brick building that spiraled up into the air. "The ring is in here?" Damian asked in amazement.

"No." Ace said. "This is a safehouse for the citizens in an emergency. The room that has it is underneath here." The Pteramon opened the door and lead everyone inside.

The interior consisted of a large open space, with some places to sit and a spiraling ladder leading to another floor. Ace clawed into the stone floor and called for Blaze to help lift it up. The rookie complied and the stone tile came out with ease, revealing a spiraling staircase leading down into darkness. The Pteramon hit a stone on the backside of the opening stone and the stairway burst with light from a metal line that followed the tunnel. "Let's go." The digimon said.

The group descended down the stone stairs until they arrived at a large wall. There was only a small hole on it. "Is this it?" Lavi scoffed. "I think your pal went senile here."

Draco touched the hole, which tapered down into a small point. "I had this specifically made in case, no, when you would come back, General." Ace said. "You know what to do right?" The boy nodded, taking out his digivice.

"Start the Program!" He commanded. "Slide Evolution!" Ace became surrounded in a veil of light. A silver winged egg with a pink symbol came out of the digimon and lumpy yellow egg adorned with a purple symbol. The light subsided, and instead of the purple pterosaur stood a bright yellow insectoid digimon. It had four arms and two legs. Silver drills protruded from his main hands and a large one from his armored head.

Selene's digivice beeped and scanned Ace's new form.

_DIGIMON IDENTIFIED:_

_ARMOR : DIGMON_

"Well." Ace said, spinning his drills. "Let's get cracking."

An explosion rocked the tunnel. "I've found you." Said a cold voice. "The bearer of the Digi-Eggs." The group turned around and saw a white blob flying in the tunnel.

Petitmon started to chatter angrily. "It's the Puttimon that was with Peckmon!" Damian exclaimed. Puttimon chuckled maniacally. "Though it seemed much cuter then."

"Give the Digi-Eggs to me or I shall take them by force." The slime digimon growled.

"With what?" Lavi scowled. She reloaded Korra from her digivice.

"Force it is." Puttimon said. It suddenly began to glow in a glaring light that quickly faded, revealing a fox-like digimon.

"Slayer!" Lavi growled. "Didn't he disappear into the sky?"

"He went through the data streams. They teleport you to different parts of the Digital World, randomly if you don't have a clear destination in mind. Did you think he got vaporized or something?" Draco said as the trio remained suspiciously silent.

Draco yelled for Ace to start opening the door while Lavi pulled out a card.

"Wait, don't evolve!" Damian said. "The space is too small!"

"What am I, an idiot?" Lavi barked. "I learned that the last time!"

_**DIGIMODIFY! GOTSUMON ACTIVATE!**_

The Coronamon received rocky gauntlets extending from its fiery bracelets.

_**ROCK FIST!**_

Kora summoned a few rocks then threw it over his head. It hit the short ceiling and caused a wall of rock to fall between them and Slayer.

"Is it done yet?" Lavi roared at Ace.

"Almost!" The Digmon yelled back. "It's been a while since I've been like this!"

The rock pile exploded as the Reppamon spun through. The fox raised its bladed tail and prepared to shoot its wind attack.

_**SHINKU –**_

_**ATSUI TOIKI!**_

Petitmon had appeared to the fox's side and shot a small fireball at the large red eye that was on the tail. The closed tightly and Slayer collapsed onto the ground in pain. Petitmon chattered triumphantly.

The wall cracked apart, revealing a simple box behind it. Blaze grabbed it and called for the others to get out of there. They stepped on the injured digimon as they ran out. Petitmon caught a ride on Blaze's head, blowing a raspberry at the injured Reppamon.

The injured champion weakly stood up and stared at the retreating group. Rage flooded its body, it's tail shook for revenge. Its body grew as bright and as hot as its rage. "Reppamon EVOLVE TO-"

The group rushed out of the chasm. "Strike it down!" Lavi ordered.

Kora, Luna, Vee, Blaze, and Ace attacked the entrance and caused it to cave in. "Did it work?" Damian asked.

_**KAISHIN NO HADOU!**_

A raging pillar of fire erupted from the ground. A silhouette of a winged digimon appeared in the flames. The fires subsided, revealing a green digimon. A blood red horn sprouted from the digimon's head, its orange and white mane shook off the residual embers. Its front feet were binded together, the same with its back legs.

"Chirinmon." Draco whispered.

Slayer stared at the group. Whatever anger he bore burned away in the fire. "This world is my home and my only home." The winged digimon said. "I will make sure that it will always survive any test. And I know my leader shall be the greatest choice for this world. So because of that, I shall get the Digi-Eggs for my master to reach his greatest form. Prepare to die."

_**Knowledge of the Swift.**_

Six more copies of the digimon appeared and they all attacked Ace at once. "AARGH!" The digimon screamed as the seven clones attacked him at once. The yellow Digi-Egg ejected from his body and after another flash of light, a Digi-Egg decorated with flames with a metal spike protruding out of it. Ace then turned into a burning pig-like digimon.

"Boarmon!" Draco exclaimed.

One of the Slayers caught the Digi-Egg in his mouth and the other six vanished. He smirked as he absorbed it into his body for safe keeping. "Eight more to go."

_**SLAMMING ATTACK!**_

Ace rammed at the Chirinmon, who swiftly flew to the air.

_**Wind Cutter Sword.**_

The holy digimon struck the armored digimon with his horn, inflicting enough damage for him to knock out another Digi-Egg. Ace returned to his Pteramon form. The pterosaur digimon started his jets and swiftly left the building while Slayer retrieved the Digi-Egg.

"He ditch us!" Lavi growled.

"Hurry up and evolve!" Selene exclaimed.

_**DIGIMODIFY! EVOLUTION ACTIVATE!**_

Firamon, Lekismon, and ExVeemon appeared to combat the beast digimon. Lasers, fireballs, and water bombs flew at the creature, but Slayer easily dodged all the champions' attacks.

"Draco!" Lavi exclaimed. "Did you get whatever's in the box?"

The boy was still fiddling around with the complex box. "Um… Ace didn't tell me how to open it." He said sheepishly, still unable to open it.

"Then do something or I'll burn you myself!"

Draco took out his digivice and accessed the program for Evolution. He noticed something unusual in the file and couldn't help but give a gleeful chuckle. "So you're alive." Draco whispered. "Time to rampage Blaze! Start the Program! Evolve : Agumon!"

_**HORN IMPULSE!**_

Blaze emerged from the light as GeoGreymon and charged at the Ultimate digimon. The Chirinmon hopped out of the way. Blaze's attack hit the wall and ricocheted off the tower wall.

"I've had enough of you, I have prey to find." Slayer said. A loud alarm cried through the area. "Hmm." An eerie red glow appeared outside.

"What's happening?" Lavi exclaimed. The data streams shone in bright red.

"Something nasty is coming." Blaze growled.

Digimon outside screamed in panic. Draco could hear Ace outside yelling at them to evacuate. Suddenly a flash of light followed by an explosion blew the Pteramon back into the tower. Ace crashed into the wall and then lost the silver Digi-Egg. Another one shaped like a pink rose took its place, changing Ace into a green and red chameleon in a goggled helmet.

The attacker digimon walked into the room. "My Lord." Slayer bowed after obtaining the winged Digi-Egg. The digimon had blue skin and a white stomach. It wore shining golden armor with shoulderguards as long as its arms and a spiked helmet that masked his face except for a pair of cold red eyes. On his right gauntlet, several holes had been bored into the armor. Ten of them, and in one rested a shining golden jewel. In his other hand, a shining white ring glimmered above the gauntlet on his left hand.

"At ease, Chirinmon." The digimon said. It stared at the five injured champions. "But I do worry for you though if you were forced into ultimate level by the likes of these guys." It chuckled.

_DIGIMON IDENTIFIED_

_ARMOR – MAGNAMON_

"An armor level?" Selene said, wondering if her digivice was correct.

The Magnamon walked closer to Slayer, stopping because Damian was between them. The boy was petrified. "Why does he look like Vee?" He whispered.

"Get out of my way." Magnamon commanded.

"Damian!" Vee cried out. "Get away from him!" The ExVeemon charged at the golden knight.

"Pathetic." The armored digimon swiftly grabbed Vee by the neck. He glared at the draconic digimon. "Is this the extent of your power?" A glowing aura shrouded the white ring. "Truly pathetic."

_**Magna Blaster.**_

The attack, enhanced with the light of the ring, shocked ExVeemon with pure energy. Vee cried out in pain as his data began to come apart, shrinking with each passing moment. "Vee!" Damian screamed. He repeatedly slashed cards, hoping that any of them could help.

The other digimon tried to go and help, but they got restrained when Slayer created more clones. "Start the Program!" Draco yelled. Selene looked over to Blaze, thinking that he managed to get the box open. "Evolve: Petitmon!"

The tiny slime flew in front of Magnamon's face and evolved in a flash of bright light. A tiny lime dragon appeared in its place. "What?" Blaze exclaimed, holding back the two Chirinmon clones.

_**HOT STEAM!**_

The fluttering dragon blew a blast of steam into the knight's eyes. Magnamon covered his irritated eyes with both hands, dropping Vee to the ground. The champion roared in pain, with white sparks spiraled around his entire body. His form shattered, shrinking him to rookie. Another shock of electricity struck the digimon, causing him to degenerate even further and further, until Vee became a small blue slime.

Damian ran and picked up his partner. "Start the program!" Draco roared. "Evolve: Bebydomon!"

The dragon became shrouded in light once again. It faded, and a larger dragon appeared. Blaze gasped in amazement. "Caliber."

The teal digimon roared as it flew in front of Damian and Vee. Magnamon scoffed as he turned and ignored the new digimon; He flew towards Slayer. "Where is the bearer?" He asked the beast digimon.

Slayer looked around for Ace, but couldn't find the digimon. "Odd, he must have run away again. Oh well." He rematerialized the three captured Digi-Eggs into Magnamon's hands. "At least we have these for now. We can hunt down that coward for the rest later."

Magnamon chuckled and took the three eggs. They basked in a white light and shrunk down to round gems. The armor level put it into empty sockets in his gauntlet.

"Why wait?" Magnamon said. "If we eliminate this city, then we don't have to bother finding him, and I have the perfect soldier to do this kind of work."

_**Magna Blast.**_

He fired a single shining ball towards the ceiling. It met the ceiling and continued to fly up, past floor after floor, easily blowing away stone that none of the others could scratch. The energy ball flew into the sky and vanished into the data stream. Moments later the stream changed into a shining gold. A digimon emerged from the ever-moving stream and crashed into the tower. The draconic digimon wore yellow armor and had wild and fiery red hair. A split shield was attached on his back and three clawed gauntlets on his hands menacingly shone in the sunlight.

The digimon stared at the stunned group with its green eyes. Selene though she saw a look of shock when it saw Draco and the green dragon. "WarGreymon." Blaze growled. The appearing of the Mega level digimon seemed to freeze the lower ranking digimon.

WarGreymon turned to Magnamon. "You called?" He asked the knight.

"There's a digimon that I need found, even if you have to tear apart this city. It can change forms and now…" Magnamon turned to Chirinmon.

"He looks like a green lizard with red stripes." Slayer answered with a tone of spite toward the mega.

"Then he's probably still here." WarGreymon said in a bored tone. "A Chamelemon can turn invisible."

_**Mega Claw.**_

WarGreymon casually slashed at the walls, digging deep grooves into the stone. "Not there." He yawned. He slashed again and again to no avail. The castle shook as its foundation began to grow weaker with each passing moment.

"Enough fooling around!" Slayer said, his calm demeanor melting away with irritation. "You know where he is already don't you? Stop messing around and get the Lord his Digi-Eggs!"

"What, and just undramatically say that he's right behind you?" WarGreymon said. "That's why you are so boring."

"WHAT?" The two members of the Holy Army exclaimed. Ace reappeared and turned around with a victorious grin.

"It's too late." He said in a taunting tone. The tower began to shake as the floor moved. It turned and descended down deeper into the ground. The doors shut and the windows closed. The remaining staircases disappeared into the walls.

"What is going on?" Lavi exclaimed.

"We're going to go for a spin!" Ace shouted back. "Hold on to something!"

"Meet at the Castle!" Draco exclaimed, realizing what the Armor level was planning.

The floor stopped spinning, Selene could see from the hole that Chirinmon created that a large spring under them had been coiled to its limit. Suddenly it accelerated upwards. The group screamed as they were sent flying through the air.

"NO!" Magnamon exclaimed as he grabbed for Ace, but the humans loaded all of their digimon into their respective digivice. Before long, everyone and everything that was on the floor were teleported through a data stream vanishing to another area in the Digital World.

Far away from the tower, a pink bird watched the destruction of the city from a crowd of digimon evacuating into the desert. "Please be alright, Ace." She whispered.


	10. Recollections

**_DISCLAIMER! I DON'T OWN DIGIMON_**… man I shouldn't have eaten that extra handful of Gummy Bears. It's so addicting to eat their heads and pretend you're a giant monster.

**Recollections**

Selene screamed as she started to dissolve away into the data stream. She could see the others dissolving away as well. The rate they scattered away was quick, and soon enough all of her disappeared.

Moments later, Selene found herself falling out of the sky. "Luna!" She called. Her partner appeared in her champion form and caught her before she could crash into the forest below. "Thanks, Partner." Selene said. She got out of the Lekismon's arms and stumbled on to the soggy dirt. Selene felt the energy leave her legs and began to collapse. Luna quickly grabbed her partner before she fell to the ground.

"Selene!" Luna exclaimed worriedly until she heard her partner snoring. The digimon sighed in relief. She picked up her partner and waited for the girl to awaken.

* * *

"I've had it!" Selene exclaimed. She was walking down a street with Damian. Above them the sky shimmered in is crimson sunset. The two friends walked through a brightly lit city. "Next time only volunteer yourself!"

"Helping clean up the school isn't that bad." Damian protested. "Besides there were many other people there, we just needed you to make sure everyone did their job. People get more scared of you then the teachers."

"Haha." Selene said, unamused. "Could you believe that one girl left during the middle of clean up?"

The sun disappeared into the horizon as the streetlights flashed on. "Anyways, I have to go now." Selene said, pointing out the route to her house. Damian offered to walk his friend home, but she said it was unnecessary and left him going on the opposite path. She walked by the abandoned park and heard someone on the old swings. Curious, she entered the park and saw that no one was on them. "Must have been the wind." She muttered. Selene looked at the full moon above her. Ugh, why do I have so much homework? She thought in annoyance.

When she turned to leave, a cracking sound occurred behind her. Selene looked behind her and saw a purple hole floating in the air. At the base of the crack rested a purple blob. Slowly the rift started to close up. Disturbed, Selene started to run away from the area. Even far away, she could hear the blob groaning in pain. The girl stopped running and sighed, turning back to the park. She stood over the creature, wondering what it was.

"Are you hurt?" She asked, as the cries were still loud. Her hand drew closer to blob, but twitched backwards when it moved. It had uncurled itself, revealing its shape to be like two teardrops connected at a small crown. Two beady eyes looked up at her and a small mouth did something other than bite her. It talked.

"Only my head hurts." The creature groaned. Selene collapsed backwards in surprise. "Are _you_ alright?" It asked with concern.

"What are you?" Selene asked, her voice trembling.

"I don't know." The digimon said softly.

"Where were you from?"

"I don't know!" It exclaimed, tiny tears dripping down its face. "I don't remember anything." It whimpered. Selene sighed and took off her jacket. She picked up the creature in it.

"This will keep you warm." Selene said softly. "My name is Selene. Are you hungry?"

* * *

Selene shuddered as she woke up from her slumber. "Where am I?" She groaned. Selene saw the forest around her. "Oh right." Beside her, Luna carried her across the forest.

"Did you have a nice dream?" Luna asked her.

Selene nodded to her partner. "Where are we going?"

"While you were sleeping, I saw a trail of smoke coming from this direction. I wanted to gain some distance over there before my evolution wears off."

They managed to reach their destination before Luna returned to her rookie form. They saw a town with a large bonfire in the square, in front of a large building. Selene loaded her partner and began to walk into the town. She noticed that there were no digimon in the streets, and decided to enter the largest building to see if there was anyone there. When she entered, Selene was greeted by a group of large golden digimon. It took her a moment to realize that it was only a statue. She noticed that there were many statues in the building, along with a vast amount of books.

"A human?" A digimon said as it emerged from behind one of the golden statues. It had a blue light blue fur pelt with navy stripes covering a yellow body. A sharp horn protruded from the digimon's head. "I haven't seen one of your kind in years."

"What is this place?" Selene asked, looking at the golden statues.

The digimon smiled. "Welcome to the Hall of Memories." He said.

* * *

To be honest, getting disassembled into bits of data wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Lavi thought. The stream spit her out into another area of the Digital World. She heard a scream beside her and saw the teal dragon digimon that Draco had evolved from Petitmon. Despite having wings, it looked like the red appendages weren't strong enough to lift the dragon yet. Didn't he load it? Lavi thought. She reloaded Kora and ordered the fire lion to catch the falling dragon. "You alright there?" She asked. The dragon nodded. "That's greeaaa-" A spell of drowsiness came over her as she yawned. Perhaps the trip took more out of her than she expected.

The Firamon then landed on the nearest spot he could. Then he waited as Lavi began snoring on his back.

* * *

"What do you think you are doing?" Lavi growled. "Bad kitty! Get away from me!" Lavi growled as she shooed away the cat.

The girl walked down the empty street, not many people take a walk at the break of dawn. She groaned as she remembered that the school had a cleaning day today and participation was manatory. Oh well, she thought, it'll be fine if we get it over with quickly. Lavi meandered through the city's winding streets and came across an old park. Lavi had walked for a while, as the sun slowly climbed higher in the sky.

She sat on the see-saw, taking a small rest before she felt like continuing. She heard a sound like cracking glass. Is someone throwing glass bottles on the street again? She growled to herself. The blond looked behind her and fell to the ground in shock. A crack appeared in the air above the sandbox. Lavi could hear growls and roars coming from the other side.

Something crashed through the rift, landing painfully into the swings. "That hurts." It growled.

"A talking lion?" Lavi exclaimed. The orange lion looked at her with shocked looks.

"Run away!" It exclaimed, a little flame on its forehead flickered. "He's coming!"

A dark streak rushed through the hole. It pounced on the lion and swiped it down in a single blow. Lavi gasped as the lion landed at her feet. "A human?" The dog-like creature growled. "I guess I can take you down after I finish with this weakling here."

It shook its dark body, making its spiked collar spiral around its neck. The lion looked fearfully at her, its sky blue eyes staring with worry. "You shall regret messing with the Grim Army Coronamon."

**_SCHWARTZ STRAHL!_**

The black dog fired a black beam from its mouth, flying for the bipedal lion. Coronamon flinched, waiting for the end, until he felt a pair of arms grabbing it. He looked in shock as the beam missed them. The lion looked up at the girl who saved him, surprised that she was looking back at him with a fearsome grin.

"This seems fun. Let's go take care of that bad doggy, alright?"

* * *

Lavi chuckled in her sleep when she remembered the Dobermon's screams for mercy. "What is this?" Kora asked. He had returned to the rookie level a few moments after he landed on a box-like metal surface. The teal dragon that the Triblade army called Caliber looked over one of the walls. Kora heard the dragon growl. Curious, the orange lion looked over the edge and gasped in shock.

They were on a giant digimon shaped like a blimp, and hundreds of leathery black Troopmon loaded themselves into the mechanical digimon. "That's not good." He shuddered as Caliber nodded grimly. The two rookies looked over at the sleeping human and hoped she would wake up soon.

* * *

Ace sighed. This kid is troublesome, he sighed mentally. The chameleon digimon managed to grab Damian with his tail while they were falling. Luckily for him the ground was soft. The Chamelemon looked at the boy clutching the Chibomon in his grip. Neither was awake. Ace chuckled, they may be convenient but using the data streams was draining on the body. He remembers that they had an additional effect that caused humans relive a memory through their dream; a fact he learned from Draco a long time again.

Ace grinned as he remembered his commander being alive. Perhaps now a few of those old nightmares can fade. I hope you are well, Caliber, sir. He thought. "Hmm? What's this?" The Chamelemon pondered as he noticed something else buried in the dirt. He maneuvered his stripped tail and pulled out the unopened box. Ace groaned at the sight. Couldn't Draco have learned to open a latch? He sighed in annoyance as he placed the box in his hat and lifted the sleeping partners on to his back.

"Where do you think you're going?" A voice asked viciously.

Ace turned his head and saw a digimon with long spiky golden hair. It was clad in a black suit with white metal armor. On the digimon's arms and legs were red and grey spiraling turbines. Its sharp fangs curved up to a vicious smile. The digimon's dark blue eyes looked at the group with a happy glare.

"You can leave after I take that treasure from you." The digimon said, clutching his fist menacingly.

* * *

The light. The vicious light. The great dragon loomed over him and his army. Seven sinister lights hung over its back, a golden mask glistening in the lights. "You have been in our way long enough." The dragon growled. Its clawed tail shook viciously its wings kept it in the air. Lasers rained down on them, seven powerful beams razed the land.

A younger Draco saw that the dragon blast a dark beam from the sphere it held. A small feeling of defeat slowly crawled into his heart.

**_WRATH OF DARKNESS!_**

Draco didn't close his eyes, but watched as the blast raced closer. A movement caught his eye, then whatever defeat he had soon disappeared in a flood of dread. He watched, horrified, as the black beam engulfed a large red and silver dragon.

"CA-CA-CALIBER!" Draco screamed in shock. His dread bubbled, simmering into a silent wave of wrath. He saw his friends weary, one of his Captains nearly dead. The wave collapsed as he glared at the demonic dragon. This was no time to indulge in wrath.

"Are you still there Caliber?" Draco asked. The red clad dragon weakly stumbled out from the smoke and gave him a weak nod. He looked over to the other weakened digimon by his side. "Then it's time we finish this." The digivice he held in his hand shimmered in a bright light as five colorful rings emerged. His friends looked at the sight with determination.

"This is the end! LUCEMON!"

* * *

Draco shuddered awake. "Ugh. I hate those streams." He growled. The boy noticed that he was in a large bed. "Where am I?" He groaned.

Besides him, he noticed that Blaze had been reduced back to the rookie level and sprouted several bruises on his reptilian head. "What's going on Blaze?" Draco asked the Agumon.

"MPH! MPH!" Blaze roared in annoyance. He noticed that the rookie had been gagged.

"So you've awoken." A voice said unenthusiastically. Draco looked up at the creature that entered the room. Blaze struggled with rage.

He burned through his gag and charged at the digimon.

**_SHARP –_**

The digimon swatted the rookie away with ease. Blaze crashed into a large cabinet. "Pity. I liked that one."

"SHUT UP, WARGREYMON!" The Agumon spat and charged again.

WarGreymon easily picked up the rookie in his grip. Blaze flapped his hands and tried to stab the digimon's fingers.

"You're still so annoying." The mega digimon sighed.

"Yeah, he still hasn't changed much, right, Tiny?" Draco chuckled. The name caused Blaze to stop his futile struggle, his jaws wide in shock.

WarGreymon chuckled at the name. "And have you changed in something other than you looks, General?"


End file.
